Renowned cardiac surgeon, Dr. Devi Shetty, asks Sadhguru about the role talent and hard work play in enhancing our capabilities. Sadhguru looks at how a human being is immensely capable if we break the many barriers that we have set upon ourselves.

Full Transcript:

Devi Shetty: I will… I will convey your message Sadhguru. I am sure he is watching this program (Laughter). Sadhguru, I believe that talent is something which is grossly exaggerated in success. It’s… when I was in medical school I used to teach martial art (Few Laugh). That was my passion (Sadhguru Laughs) and every time a Bruce Lee’s movie was released all these school kids would come and join in hordes to martial art schools. We used to call as ‘Bruce Lee phenomena…’

Sadhguru: They are gone after two weeks (Laughs).

Devi Shetty: Yes. And I use to see some kids whose physique is meant for martial art, who have the natural flair and I used to think “Oh this kid is going to get a black-belt.” And interestingly Swamiji after six months they are never there. The guys who go after the black-belt and you know do something very good in martial art, are the ones who join the school without any skills, without any talent, who worked very very hard, for everything they had to sweat it out but in the end, they are the ones who succeed. How do you explain this phenomena?

Sadhguru: See, for variety of reasons - let me not go beyond this - for variety of reasons, a certain individual could be born with a certain flair - physical flair, mental flair, emotional flair, style - you know five-year-old child, one has style, other is clumsy, okay. So the one with the style is not going to become necessarily a fashion thing, somebody else who seems to be clumsy may grow into something else. Like, you don't know when a woman is pregnant, the child within that womb whether it's a sage or a sorcerer, nor the woman know (knows?). The mother does not know whether she is producing a sage or a sorcerer or what.

This is because as we touched upon this in the very beginning, probably it needs a little more. See, there is something called - I use the word coherence because of modern science is using that word. Who you are here right now, as you sit here - this is physics. Every subatomic particle is in constant contact with everything. What you call as cosmos is living life and it's a live mind. You have captured only one small part of it. If you work with only that one smart… small part of what you have captured both as life and as intelligence, you will function at a certain level. If you apply yourself to break the barriers of your limitations that you’ve set for yourself, then there is an intelligence beyond anybody’s understanding, beyond anybody’s estimate which is available to you. Once this is available to you, people think you are superhuman.

No, this is not about being super human – this is about realizing that being human is super. The immensity of being human has not been realized. So we are always making a m… a kind of a mathematical calculation “Okay if this person has this much IQ, maybe this is what he will become.” This is what Newton’s law, that everything that moves on this planet works to a mathematical precision or a geometric precision - that is if you take a pendulum the length of pendulum will decide how it will swing. If you take a projectile, depending upon its mass, velocity and the trajectory, it will go to a certain place. That is not how the cosmos is working because what you think is physical and not physical is all mixed up within this. Within this human being the physical self, the psychological self, the emotional self and who you call as myself, the life within you, the fundamental life process - these are all different dimensions and the innermost core of who you are which… because all the other words are corrupted, I’ll use the word “Life” or just you - what you call as me.

This, if you allow it, if you do not identify it with any form with your physical form or with other different identities what you take on, it has a… a way of being cohesive or collaborative with everything around. When we say somebody worked hard, all he is trying to do is stretch his boundary of identity, isn't it? He is trying to stretch his boundary. If he succeeds to stretch his boundary, something that was… he never thought possible or imagined that is within his competence or capability becomes his, miraculously. I can show you hundreds of people who come to me, we prepare them for a certain period and then we initiate them. In twenty-four hours you will see the shape of their face will change, genetics are altered in twenty-four hours’ time. You can see the photographic images, they have actually changed dramatically overnight, simply because of a certain extension of their identity.

So in the Indian spiritual milieus, when you say spiritual we must understand this – this is not about looking up or looking down. When we say spiritual, we’re talking about transcending the limitations of physical. So right now the physical is here as if it's a solid entity in people’s experience but modern physics is telling you and medical science is beginning to telling… tell you or if people don’t understand - if they just hold their nose for two minutes they understand that they are not an independent existence, it is in transaction. Not just in terms of breath, even on the level of subatomic particles, it's in constant transaction. If this transaction becomes even minutely conscious, suddenly you have immense capabilities that you never thought were possible. You mentioned Bruce Lee, he himself – he is physically not very balanced, you know? His one leg was about an inch and a half longer than the other one and he couldn’t stand straight but look at the level of (Laughs)…

Devi Shetty: Yes.

Sadhguru: Most incredible.

Devi Shetty: Yes.

Sadhguru: Physically you can't strateg… stretch it anymore.

Devi Shetty: Yes.

Sadhguru: It's like most incredible possibilities he created and he became an inspiration for a whole generation.

Devi Shetty: Yes.

Sadhguru: Today Karate is what it is only because of this one man.

Devi Shetty: Exactly.

Sadhguru: Isn’t it?

Devi Shetty: Yes. Yes.

Sadhguru: So that is the level of inspiration he became, this is because when somebody… unfortunately when somebody comes with a little, you know one step below people around him he strives. Striving essentially means you are trying to break your limitations. Limitations means there are many levels - psychological, emotional limitations but the most important thing is the limitation of identity. You identify with only your physical body. This is why when I talked about breeding in… with care, biological identity is the most limiting identity that you have because it limits to the area of your body. Now when you strive, you break this. It doesn’t matter wi… in what way you strive. Most people strive in unconscious, unscientific, simply out of striving they do things, but there are ways to strive scientifically in a proper way. There are tools to strive with pis… specific direction to break the limitations of who we are. If you break this boundary - the subatomic particles are transacting, the intelligence is transacting, only you’re missing the whole game. If you don’t miss the game, if you are in the game of life, not in the game of thoughts and emotions, you are in the game of life - suddenly just about anything you want you can do, not this or that. Let’s say - maybe you are already a musician, are you a musician? Just an artist?

Devi Shetty: I am an artist (Laughs).

Sadhguru: You’re… I will tell you, I will give you a simple process - three to six months you practice suddenly you can sing. I sing because I am just shameless, okay? (Laughter) I don’t care what you think, I just sing (Few Laugh). I am saying anything can… a human being can do, simply if he breaks his barriers and these barriers are many levels but the most fundamental thing is the identity.